By Carien du Plessis and Krishn Kaushik
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -A deal to expand the BRICS group of leading developing countries appeared stuck in eleventh hour negotiations at a leaders summit on Wednesday, threatening to undermine the bloc’s ambition to give the “Global South” more clout in world affairs.
Agreement to expand BRICS – currently Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – could allow dozens of interested nations to seek admission as Beijing and Moscow push to forge it into a viable counterweight to the West.
The debate over enlargement has topped the agenda at the three-day summit taking place in Johannesburg. And while all BRICS members have publicly expressed support for growing the bloc, there were divisions among the leaders over how much and how quickly.
Summit host South Africa’s foreign minister Naledi Pandor speaking on Wednesday said BRICS leaders had agreed on mechanisms for considering new members.
“We have agreed on the matter of expansion,” she told a radio station run by her ministry.
“We have a document that we’ve adopted which sets out guidelines and principles, processes for considering countries that wish to become members of BRICS…That’s very positive.”
However, a BRICS member country official with direct knowledge of the discussions told Reuters that the leaders had not yet signed a finalised admission framework.
An agreement had been meant to be adopted following a plenary session earlier on Wednesday, but the source said it had been delayed after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced new admission criteria.
Asked about the delay, an Indian official aware of the details of the talks told Reuters late on Wednesday that the discussion were continuing.